The Ghost in the Machine
by crackedradio
Summary: On Strangelove and the not-quite ghost in the machine.  One-sided StrangelovexThe Boss, spoilers for Peace Walker


**Title:** The Ghost in the Machine  
**Fandom:** Metal Gear Solid  
**Genre:** Drama  
**Characters/Pairings:** Strangelove, mentions of Coldman, the Boss; one-sided StrangelovexBoss  
**Rating:** K+  
**Summary/Idea: **Of Strangelove and the not-quite ghost in the machine.  
**Warnings:** Spoilers for Peace Walker  
**Words**: 1350  
**Author's Note:** This took me a lot longer than I expected. This story also turned out a lot longer than I intended it to. Credit goes to CobraShipper for partly inspiring this. Should I have butchered the English language at some point in the story, please tell me about it.

**Edit: **Fixed some mistakes. Thank you very much for pointing them out, CobraShipper!

**The Ghost in the Machine**

The AI inside the Mammal Pod is slowly gaining form, becoming an outline of the person it is supposed to be once it is finished. The laboratory that hosts it and all the machines and computers necessary for its completion, is never silent, even when no one is there.

Though it actually should be 'if no one were there' by all means, because someone is always in the Mammal Pod hall, working and passively listening to the sometimes louder, sometimes quieter sounds of the machines.

Ninety percent of the time it's Dr. Strangelove. Tonight is no different and so she is standing in the grand hall where the Mammal Pod stands, alone and working on the AI.

Ironically, Dr. Strangelove is probably also the one person on the project that is the least interested in the actual completion of the Peace Walker. She is supposed to create the electronic brain, and nothing more.

There is where her concerns lie, nowhere else. Coldman's ambitions matter nothing to her; they simply bring Coldman to give her the almost infinite resources needed for the creation of the AI, but on a personal level she does not care for him. She might resent him a little, in the very same way she resents everyone around her.

Her misanthropy could just be considered another form of apathy from an unorthodox perspective. She does, after all, hate everyone equally.

It is not like she has much to care for these days, anyway. Except the AI, that is.

Coldman told her about his grand ideas for the AI in his characteristic melodramatic fashion when he hired her, what the AI in his mind is supposed to be like – noble, intelligent and painfully logical. A flawless mind is what he wants, something that is perfect in a way no human being could ever hope to be.

For the good of the many, of course. Not for his own gain, never his personal gain. Really.

But in the end it is Strangelove who can actually imagine someone like that, for she knows – rather did know, actually – someone like that once. And not one day passes on which Strangelove does not miss her.

She has written quite a few letters over the years to the woman of whom she knows neither her true name nor her address. Letters that remained unsent.

In the beginning, they were quite…mundane, not particularly interesting or personal – just gushing about scientific progress and questions about the woman's well being. But with time, the letters became more personal and more emotional, revealing a certain soft spot in Strangelove's heart that was not to be mistaken with vulnerability.

She never wrote 'I love you' in any of the letters until the last one. The last letter she ever addressed to the Boss was written on the day Strangelove heard about her death. It was the shortest and simplest message she ever wrote and it was the one she poured all of her broken heart into, even if it does not show:

"Dear Boss,

_Why?_

PS.: I love you."

There is a lot of grief as well as anger swelling up inside her and has done so for many years. The sorrow gives Strangelove the motivation to make this project her very own 'final mission', but in the end it are the many unanswered questions all beginning with 'why' that drive her.

Why did she take that mission?

Why did she defect?

Why did she launch the nuke?

Why did her disciple, of all people, kill her in cold blood?

_Why did someone like her have to die?_

These are the questions that the AI is supposed to answer for her. It impossible to physically resurrect the dead, but you can take apart what made the living and work from there.

And that is exactly what Strangelove does, collecting all the data she can find on the Boss, from her birth date to her psychological profile to her own memories of the woman and using it to form the Artificial Intelligence. In a way, she truly is resurrecting the Boss' spirit circuit by circuit, chip by chip inside the Mammal Pod.

In a way, the progress of the AI is just her own unique countdown to her suicide.

And it is halfway done already. The voice is as good as finished, even though it is far from being a perfect copy of the Boss's voice. The AI has all the Boss's memories up to her release from the hospital after the botched space launch. But it is her psychological profile, her personality, her _soul _that Strangelove is still uncertain about.

The AI should, for the most part, act and think like the Boss, but Strangelove has not had the chance to actually test that.

Until now.

Strangelove does not like to be bothered by unwanted human company on a good day (which Huey in particular had to learn rather painfully), much less on a bad day (which Huey in particular had to learn even more painfully), but tonight she will not tolerate any interruptions or uninvited guests and so she has done all she can to ensure nobody, absolutely nobody can ruin this for her.

This moment is going to be hers and hers alone.

A rumbling noises passes through the hall of the Mammal Pod as Strangelove activates all computers, machines and other devices that are in any way connected to the AI.

She is shaking in anticipation and stuck between hope and fear when she walks up the stairs to the panel on which the Pod is located. The various machines' noises are getting a louder and louder until it would be impossible to hear one's own screams.

Finally, after a last loud screech and after the Mammal Pod is revealed to Strangelove's eyes in a ray of soft, red light, the room is taken over by silence.

Strangelove has awoken the ghost in the machine. And it speaks. Confused.

"**Where...am I?**"

The AI's voice echoes loudly in the room. The ghost speaks and it takes Strangelove's breath away as she has to reevaluate one of her earlier assumptions. The voice is not just similiar to that of the Boss. It is a perfect replica of it, no corrections or improvements needed.

And it almost drives Strangelove to tears to hear it once again after such a long time, after so many things have happened. She smiles for the first time in a very long while.

"**Who is there?**"

There is something haunting in the metallic echo of the voice.

It sends chills down her spine, but Strangelove does not let it show. There is nobody here to witness her losing some her composure, but her pride does not allow it. Instead she lovingly caresses the outer shell of the Mamma Pod and answers softly:

"You are in my research laboratory in Mount Irazu of Costa Rica, Boss. I am Dr. Strangelove and…and…" she pauses for a second, her professional and dispassionate demeanor crumbling fast and so she whispers audible if somewhat shakily:

"Do you remember me?"

The AI takes a moment to answer. Strangelove takes note of it. Too slow, she thinks, it should answer more quickly, less hesitantly. The Boss never hesitated.

"**Yes. Yes I do.**"

These words are a relief to Strangelove nonetheless.

"It has been a while," she replies and wants to say more, but instead pauses once again. She has, after all, not come to merely exchange greetings.

And it is not proven yet that the AI actually thinks like the Boss. It is not proven yet if the machine actually contains her spirit, or is nothing but an empty shell that cannot think beyond what its creator programmed it to.

At the moment, the AI merely has proven that it has _her _voice, which is already enough to shaken Strangelove. If it has _her _way of thinking is another matter entirely, something Strangelove still had to examine.

But who knows, maybe the AI can actually already deliver the answers Strangelove seeks.

However, there is only one way to find out.

"Commencing test number one…"


End file.
